Cole, Gallison

Gallison and Nora Eppie Bennett Cole
From Proud Heritage, Vol II by DCPA. This 317 page hardcover book is available online.

Gallison "Newt" and Nora Bennett Cole

Gallison Newton Cole was the son of James Madison Cole and the grandson of Dr. John Cole, who migrated to Texas from Virginia as a member of Peters Colony (See Proud Heritage, Vol. I pg. 39). Our home, as I remember it as a child of three or four years, was located on what, at that time, was Preston Road, now an extension of Oak Lawn Avenue. Turtle Creek ran to the back of our home, and us kids, along with some of the neighboring kids, really enjoyed wading and catching crawdads. Gallison was a stock farmer and fed beef cattle for major beef packers. He also had a large orchard planted on the place apples, pears, peaches, etc. Our house was built some three or four hundred feet back from the road with a lane leading down to the house, and when the peaches were ripe, prospective buyers, seeing the kids in the orchard, would ask the price of peaches. Too young to know, I'd try to sell peaches "a peck a bushel." I was a long time living that down!

The Cole land was located on both sides of the road. He subdivided a part of it, selling to anyone wishing to build. After selling our home on Preston Road, we moved to another farm located on Record Crossing now Stemmons Expressway. The new St. Paul Hospital adjoins this location. My father had built a new home for the family prior to our moving, and he continued stock farming at this location. Quite a number of acres of this farm were wooded, however, on the back part of the farm there was a lot of gravel which my father mined. He hired an old man, who lived in a tent close to the pits to keep track of the number of loads of gravel as they were removed. This old man was quite a curiosity to us kids since he wore a long, grayish beard, and extremely long fingernails, which he claimed he wore for protection.

After selling this farm, we moved closer to schools Maple Avenue in North Dallas. My father was a firm believer in education and wanted his children to have a good education, so we lived at this location for a number of years. Finally, stock farming was again beckoning. We moved from Maple Avenue to a farm located just south of the Farmers Branch area. A gravel lane off the main road to Denton led to this farm, and it became known as Cole Road, eventually changed to Southwell Road after it was taken into the Dallas city limits, since Dallas already had a Cole Avenue and a Cole Street Cole Road was a "little much" so to speak.

Gallison Cole spent the remaining years of his life on this farm and died at the age of 70 years. He had lived to see his three daughters, Lexie, Mary and myself (Lillie Belle) and his son, Gordon, married. The youngest son, Clayton, was still in high school at the time of his death. My mother, Nora Eppie, outlived him by 16 years. She sold the farm and was living in Carrollton at the time of her death.

Before his death, my father acquired another farm due to an investment with another realtor, who suddenly died of a heart attack. My father assumed the indebtedness, consequently owning the farm and it was being leased to share croppers at the time of his death. This property is located on what is now known as Sandy Lake Road, northwest of Carrollton. My mother, before her passing, had divided this property among the three daughters and the two sons.

The daughters built homes and lived there for some years. The sons had business interests elsewhere. Gallison Cole had dreams of locating his family on a large ranch. His dream, was partly realized since the three daughters located on this land. Our home sites are hardly recognizable, since land developers have acquired the land and this farm is a city with home after home dotting the horizon.

This article was written by Lillie Belle Cole Ford who died 6 June 1989 and is buried at Restland Cemetery, Dallas, Texas.